When I check to see which firewalls are enabled in order to not have more than one on at the same time, which is known to cause conflicts, I find that McAfee firewall is on. When I highlight it to try turning it off it does not let me access it, and when I highlight the windows version it does not let me access it either. What should I do to fix this problem, which maybe linked to another problem I am having? My whole system was wiped clean & all programs reinstalled less than 30 days ago. I told the professional to ensure all of those factory trial offers were taken off of my computer to give more space. McAfee was one of those, and I used for about 30 days & discontinued prior to this tech support I recieved. I was also told that my computer had a bot on it and all scans showed it to be removed before he reinstalled the programs from the factory disk. I have a Toshiba Satellite Windows Vista Home Premium\ I am currently using Symantec protection and I can be on the internet for 5 min, or 30 min, etc... then suddenly I am dropped. I am trying to eliminate anything dealing with my computer settings that may be causing this problem. That is when I ran into the current question I am asking. One step at a time, I hope to figure out how to stop getting dropped on line. When it happens I also notice the online program freezing up. Occassionally I have also noticed other programs slow up, & my Windows Media Player freeze up. Recently I have used a friends external hard drive to download some entertainment from it onto my external drive. However, the first thing I did when I plugged it into my laptop was scan the whole thing for anything harmful. That is when 2 Trojans were found, quarantined & I then deleted them. Could this still be a problem even though nothing is detected through several scans on both externals & my laptop? I know, not so simple. I appreciate any help I can get!

Man, when I read your message, for a second there, I thought maybe it was going to be an intersting question about how to detect firewalls in a network or subverting firewalls or something nmap related. What is it that you're asking? How to see if your firewall is turned on or off but it won't let you turn it off? Maybe that's a good thing...

Symantec is on, but I have my Windows turned off as recommeded by Windows. Only one on at a time because more than one will cause conflicts. See, the McAfee is not even suppose to exist in my computer anymore. When I try to unistall it I find it is not even there to click. Then when I search through everything on my whole computer to include hidden, nothing is found! Frustrating.